A transmission electron microscopy image of a strain isolated from the first US novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case. The blue-colored spherical virus particles contain cross-sections of the viral genome seen as black dots.
CDC/Hannah Bullock; Azaibi Tamin
ST. LOUI — Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an air monitor that can alert users to the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in just five minutes .
In an article published Monday in Nature Communications, researchers showed the monitor can detect just a few dozen virus particles in a cubic meter. They hope to commercialize air monitors and install them in public spaces such as hospitals and schools to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. Rajan Chakrabarti, Associate Professor of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, McElvey School of Engineering. “This is from the pandemic preparedness side. We need a real-time monitoring device that can do that.”
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The monitor works by drawing a large volume of air through the device, approximately 1,000 liters per minute. The high velocity captures the collected aerosol within the fluid in which the sensor resides.
The virus particles then bind to a protein on the sensor that recognizes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Finally, a voltage is applied that changes the charge of the virus particles, and a sensor detects that electrical change. When the green light switches to red light, the monitor signals that the airflow in the room needs to be increased.
When the research team tested the monitor in the bedroom of a COVID-19 positive patient, the monitor detected the presence of the virus. By comparison, the monitor detected nothing in virus-free air samples.
“This was the first real-world test of this device,” he said. John Silito, Professor of Neurology, University of Washington School of Medicine. “By the time we got to that point, we had done so much preparatory work. That was the moment I knew what I was doing.”
Researchers — Chakrabarti, Sirito, Carla YuedeAn associate professor of psychiatry in the medical school, he plans to soon work on commercializing the monitor for public use. In the coming months, the company plans to expand the monitor’s capabilities to check for other pathogens such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
“If we really want to mitigate the spread of the virus, being able to monitor it and know what’s going on and what the health of that space is in real time or near real time is very important. Yes, we think it is very important,” said Sirito. He said.
A study led by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and published in the JAMA Network Open suggests that 70.4% of the nearly 850,000 COVID-19 household transmissions in the United States originated in children. ing.
